Robert Jakob Fruin

Fruin, Robert Jakob

Fruin, a right-wing liberal, was a professor at the University of Leiden from 1860 to 1894. His methodology was shaped by the theories of social Darwinism and positivism, and he took, although not consistently, an interdisciplinary approach to the study of history that made use of economics. In his interpretation of the history of the Netherlands bourgeois revolution of the 16th century, Fruin emphasized the national liberation, rather than the social, aspect of the struggle. He regarded the burghers, the bourgeoisie, and the Orangists as the principal force behind the revolution and dismissed the popular masses as “the mob.”

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